烏有

See also: 乌有

Chinese

		a crow; black; not a crow; black; not; empty; void	to have; there is; there are to have; there is; there are; to exist; to be
trad. (烏有)		烏	有
simp. (乌有)		乌	有

Etymology

Literally “not-have”; a fictional character in 子虛賦.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): wūyǒu

  (Zhuyin): ㄨ ㄧㄡˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): wu¹ jau⁵
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): o͘-iú

  (Teochew, Peng'im): u¹ iu²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: wūyǒu
    • Zhuyin: ㄨ ㄧㄡˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: wuyǒu
    • Wade–Giles: wu¹-yu³
    • Yale: wū-yǒu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: uyeou
    • Palladius: ую (uju)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /u⁵⁵ joʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: wu¹ jau⁵
    • Yale: wū yáuh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: wu¹ jau⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: wu¹ yeo⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /wuː⁵⁵ jɐu̯¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: o͘-iú
    • Tâi-lô: oo-iú
    • Phofsit Daibuun: o'iuo
    • IPA (Xiamen): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻²² iu⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /ɔ³³ iu⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻²² iu⁵³/
    • IPA (Taipei): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻³³ iu⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻³³ iu⁴¹/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: u¹ iu²
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: u iú
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /u³³⁻²³ iu⁵²/

Noun

烏有

1. (literary, figurative) nonexistent person or thing; naught; nothing

Derived terms

• 付之烏有 / 付之乌有
• 化為烏有 / 化为乌有 (huàwéiwūyǒu)
• 子虛烏有 / 子虚乌有 (zǐxū-wūyǒu)
• 烏有先生 / 乌有先生
• 烏有鄉 / 乌有乡 (“utopia”)

 

Japanese

Kanji in this term
烏	有
う Jinmeiyō	ゆう Grade: 3
goon	kan'on

Etymology

Ultimately from Middle Chinese 烏有 (MC 'u hjuwX). May be a learned borrowing from Chinese 烏有 / 乌有 (wūyǒu), considering that this is first cited in Japanese to a text from 1375.

Although this compound may appear to literally parse out to 烏 / 乌 (“crow”) + 有 (“have”), the 烏 / 乌 character was also used phonetically in Chinese with a separate sense of none or not.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) うゆう [ùyúú] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟jɯ̟ː]

Noun

烏(う)有(ゆう) • (uyū) ^{←ういう (uiu)?}

1. [from 1375] nonexistence, nothing

Synonyms

• 皆(かい)無(む) (kaimu)

Idioms

• 烏(う)有(ゆう)に帰(き)す (uyū ni kisu): to return something to nothingness
• 烏(う)有(ゆう)に属(ぞく)す (uyū ni zokusu): to consign something to nothingness